Mohs hardness scale for Gemstones

MOHS SCALE OF HARDNESS

The MOHS Hardness Scale starts with talc at 1 being the softest mineral and ending with diamond at 10 being the hardest mineral. It is universally used around the world as a way of distinguishing minerals. Simply put: the higher the number, the harder the mineral.

The MOHS scale was created by trying to scratch one mineral with another, and then recording which mineral left a scratch. Fro example, Corundum (Sapphire and Ruby) was used to scratch Apatite. Corundum left a scratch on the surface of Apatite, and so this mineral should sit higher on the scale.

The most important number on this scale of 7. Why? 7 is the hardness of Quartz, which is the hardest mineral that is commonly air born. It is important to have jewelery with gemstones in it that have a MOHS of 7 or higher because of the amount of dust and impurities in the air. If the dust contains minute particles of Quartz, than any mineral that is below quartz on the MOHS scale will be scratched.

So image you have a beautiful Apatite ring and you notice there is some dust on it. You grab a cloth and start to clean it. There is a high likely hood that there is something in that dust that is harder than Apatite (5). This means when you wipe the dust off the ring, it will scratch the Apatite gemstone.

This is why it is always advisable to wash your jewelery under warm water before you wipe it clean. that way most of the dust will be removed and you reduce the risk of scratches.

Gemstone Family Classification

The gemstones listed here show every color in the rainbow. Even with such variety of colors, patterns and shapes - they can be broken down into 16 different families based on their chemical composition. The MOHS hardness is shown for each of the more common gemstones.